Help with Default needed

notoriousjaye

Hi there

Just looking for some advice because I've hit a dead wall with Vodafone.

In totally out of the ordinary circumstances I was attacked one night whilst out with friends. The long and short of it was that one of the attackers ended up dying and I was remanded into police custody immediately and charged with murder. As you can appreciate having never been in trouble before my mental health fell apart and I was a total mess awaiting trial.

At the time this happened I had a contract phone with Vodafone. My dad being totally amazing did everything he could to keep all my bills paid up to date, mortgages, credit cards etc. Unfortunately when he wrote to Vodafone, even though he told them what had happend they then wrote to me at my account address asking for authority to speak to a 3rd party. Obviously a letter I would never receive. My father did obtain power of attorney and finally sent this to Vodafone after a good few months. He heard nothing back. In that time they terminated my account and lodged a default so he decided to do nothing until I got out as it couldn't get any worse.

On release after 20 months in prison I contacted Vodafone but unsurprisingly didn't get anywhere, just referred to debt collectors. I then sent a letter in to them explaining what had happend, the dates my father had written attempting to communicate to seek a conclusion (Either pay bill, freeze contract, waive termination fee etc) and there lack of response. I was basically saying that given the circumstances (as they are exceptional) can I now pay the outstanding balance (£200 roughly) and get the default removed as that's a bit unfair. I get a call from their customer relations telling me they shall look into it. They said hopefully it will be OK if I now settle the bill it would be a bit unfair to keep the default as it was totally beyond my control and even in such circumstances real efforts were made to pay this bill. They said even if they cannot fully remove it they may be able to change it to "Query" which is neither positive or negative.

I get a call yesterday from a very nice customer service lady, she said "it's bad news". They basically had to pass the case over to their "Quality Assurance" department (who don't deal with me) and they had declined to remove the default by saying that they only received the letter of authority to speak to my father after the default had been lodged. That they are audited and they have a responsibility to record accurate information. I didn't argue with the lady as she seemed genuinely gutted they couldn't help and said that she and a few others that worked there really hoped this would get sorted.

My issue is this. I could do nothing! An accident had occurred that was unforeseen, I was being held incommunicado in prison. My mental health was terrible. My father did what he could to try and sort it and had no problems communicating with 10 other creditors. He was offering to seek a resolution but they were caught up with the red tape of the data protection act. Regardless of when he sent the letter of authority it still doesn't change the exceptional circumstances I was in. The money was there to pay at the time but the communication was not. As soon as I'm released from prison in between counseling, depression and therapy I still go to the citizens advice within a couple of days to find out where I stand on this. The lady there was close to tears when she heard my situation and couldnt beleive I was still so focused at paying my bills and getting it sorted. She also unfortunatly couldn't find anything of any use for me.

Surely defaults are there to warn creditors of irresponsible borrowers. Given what had happened and what I've tried to do I think it's safe to say that I'm probably one of the most committed debtors they could have on their books with an ability to pay. I think their Quality Control department is being either ignorant to credit reference agency rules or unnecessarily over zealous with the rules.

I have 3 mortgages all on standard variable rates. I cant sell the properties because they are all in negative equity. I cannot remortgage because of this default. When interest rates go up I face financial ruin. I just want to put all this cra* behind me but I cannot see why there being so obtuse. Surely I have some argument to have that default removed if I settle the account in full as there was NOTHING else I could of done.

Please help